Data center DC distribution and cooling management software have reached the peak of “inflated expectations” by the industry, while free cooling and power monitoring and management software are sliding into the trough between second or third rounds of venture-capital funding and sobering industry adoption statistics.

Other solutions sliding along into the aforementioned trough are combined heat and power, flywheel UPS systems and in-rack cooling, according to Gartner’s newly released annual Hype Cycle Special Report on data center power and cooling technologies. The report is one of 79 areas the research company has examined through its Hype Cycle prism this year - its largest to date.

Among other subject areas explored are cloud computing and virtualization, both of which - as have some of the said data center power and cooling technologies - have reached the peak that lies somewhere between the supplier-proliferation phase and the beginning of activity beyond early adopters.

Solutions in the data center power and cooling categories that are climbing the post-trough slope - characterized by phases from second-generation products to development of methodologies and best practices and toward the plateau of high-growth adoption are in-row cooling and high-efficiency UPS systems.

More than 20 technologies are on the steep pre-peak rise, somewhere between the R&D phase and the beginning of mass-media hype. Some of these technologies are tidal and geothermal power, deep-lake cooling, fuel cells, direct AC to rack, absorption (non-electric) chillers, on-site photovoltaic power and wind turbines, server power capping and chilled-beam cooling.

More information on Gartner’s Hype Cycle Special Report for 2009 can be found here.